I was asked by my mother-in-law to update this haggard sewing cabinet for my niece's birthday. She got my niece a new sewing machine since she has been teaching her granddaughters how to sew. My mother-in-law can work miracles with a sewing machine! It really is a lost art. I took the required sewing class in Jr. high, but I never developed a passion for it. I am so very grateful my daughters will have this skill (and that they enjoy it)!
I started this project by taking the cabinet apart. I removed all of the hardware, door, and flip-top.
I spray painted the hardware with Rust-o-leum's Hammered Copper.
I removed the legs of the cabinet because at some point in time, they were shortened. The easiest way for me to fix that was to make new legs out of 1" x 1" wood strips. I measured my mom's sewing machine to find out how tall the legs should be.
When the front door to the cabinet is open, there is a small hole that allowed for a hand to go in and make adjustments to the machine. It was obsolete for this cabinet's purpose, so Hubby suggested I make it a cubby. I found some scrap wood in the perfect sizes to make a box. I glued and clamped it to the underside of the cabinet.
This cabinet was old, so it was made for the machine to "hide" inside the cabinet. Way cool, in my opinion, but sewing machines aren't made to do that anymore. Thus, I had a large hole in the top of the cabinet. I solved the problem by attaching some "braces" underneath the hole to give some support to the large piece of wood I added to the top. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the wood I nestled into the hole.
I didn't like how the surface looked, so I ended up cutting some thin plywood to attach to the top for a new surface. That was stressful! The cabinet top has a slight decorative curve to it. It is lovely, but not fun to replicate. I glued the plywood to the top and then used my jigsaw to cut along the curves. I clamped the plywood while the glue dried.
I gave the whole cabinet a good sanding before painting it. I used Valspar's Color Radiance in flat black. This paint is a little more expensive than other spray paint, but it is soooo worth it! It is paint and primer and nice and thick. It covered the cabinet with one coat and it dried quickly. It saved me so much time and it looked beautiful!
I could have just used the paint, but I was worried about the durability. Just as a precaution, I used some Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane spray on top of the dried spray paint. Unfortunately, it was a semi-gloss. While I love the look of shiny black, I was really attached to the flat black look this cabinet had. And it took forever for the poly to dry. But, I had to finish what I started, or else the whole sewing cabinet would look very strange!
I found my niece's initials in bright pink metal magnets at the dollar store, so I painted them with the hammered copper paint and added them to the door.
The plywood top I added makes it so the flip-top doesn't sit flush, but it won't lay down once the sewing machine is on top anyway.
The sewing cabinet has become classy and will hopefully be timeless. Now my niece is ready to start her fashion empire!
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